March 2, 2023
1/25/2023
The final count is in. I did a total
of the most popular nuns and lay teachers that taught at St. Raymonds from 1952
through 1961 and came up with the following results based on the St. Raymond
Grade School Memories Reunion program provided to us for the 61st grade
school reunion in 2006. By far the most liked teacher was Sister Rose Miriam
with 18 students listing her as their favorite, followed by Sister Mary Immaculate,
Sister Mary Florence and Sister
Virgo Marie each with 5 students claiming them as their
favorites.
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Sister Rose Miriam 18 Positive votes |
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Sister Mary Immaculate 5 Positive votes |
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Sister Mary Florence 5 Positive votes |
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Sister Virgo Marie 5 Positive votes. Paul Gardner, a classmate from the St.
Raymonds class of 1961 brought up an interesting point in one of his emails. He wrote that he hardly knew me back
then and that goes both ways. There is a good reason for that. We probably
were in separate classes all through our time at Saint Raymonds. I remember
all of the nuns and lay teachers that taught me but names of the nuns and lay
teachers that taught the other classes I don’t even remember hearing until
the 2006 reunion. Starting in 1st grade I had Sister Mary
Immaculate, Sister Maria Goretti, Miss Ann Morley, Sister Mary Anita, Miss
Marion, Sister Rose Miriam and Sister Mary Irenaeus for 7th and 8th
grade which was a combined 7th and 8th grade class. The
names Sister Mary
Florence, Sister Virgo Maria, Sister Ann Regina, Sister Rosalie, Sister Kevin
Marie, Sister Mary Florence, Miss Matilda, and Miss Mary obviously taught the
other classes. There are about 20 classmates whose names I don’t recognize,
and I’d like to think it’s because they were in the other classes rather than
the onset of senility or dementia. If
I were to grade my St Raymonds nuns and lay teachers as they would have
graded me, it would go as follows: Sister Mary Immaculate- A+. She was
probably the nicest kindest nun/teacher I ever had. When my sister graduated
from Dougherty in 1966, she recognized me right away and asked me how I was
doing. I told her that I was getting ready to go into the Air Force. and was embarrassed that I had gotten
kicked out of Dougherty. Second grade was Sister Maria Goretti
who I would grade a B, firm but fair. One afternoon, the class was working on
an assignment, but I had an assignment of my own. I drew a map of the Delaware
River port area and made a couple of ships by taking one of those brown and
gray erasers that were used for ink and pencil and cut it in half. I
fashioned a pair of smokestacks using a Scripto mechanical pencil barrels and
had docked one of the ships. As the second ship was pulling into port, I felt
this presence watching me. I looked up and saw all black and when I got to
her eyes, I was terrified. I had heard stories of nuns beating pupils and
prepared for the worst, but she stuck out her hand and I gave up my ships and
the river and she bent down and whispered “You will get these back at the end
of the year now back on the assignment. Third Grade, Miss Ann Morely. I
have an issue with this one. Four of our classmates picked Miss Ann as their favorite
teacher and one picked her as their least favorite. I would give her a D
because I remember kneeling a lot in her class and one of her favorite
homework assignments was to have us transcribe the text of our readers into
our workbooks. I guess this helped perfect our Ollie Ovals and Johnny Jump Ups
in penmanship. Some of the kids referred to her as Wyatt Earp because she
wore a hat similar to the one Hugh O’Brian wore in the TV show “The Life and
Legend of Wyatt Earp”. Sister Mary Anita, an F in my book. I think it started at the beginning
of the school year. I was the oldest kid in my family and as such got first
dibs on the cereal box premiums. I had a Rin Tin Tin figure a morse code
clicker and a frogman that you would put baking soda in the foot, and he would
go up and down in the bathtub. Unfortunately, I brought all these toys to school
and had them confiscated by Sister Anita. The reason I would grade her an F
is because one afternoon Father O’Halloran popped into class and gave one of
his spelling quizzes. We called him Father O not out of disrespect as some of
the nuns thought, but because most of us could but pronounce O’Halloran. He
told he had a quarter for anyone who could correctly spell this word,
CHAMOIS. The hands went up and kids were spelling SHAMMY, SHAMMI etc. When
Father O got to me, he said OK Mr. Lynn and before I could answer, Sr. Anita
said Don’t ask him, he’s too stupid to know the answer. Father O said Give
Mr. Lynn a chance. Then Divine Intervention happened. I stood up and said
CHAMOIS, nailed it. I got a way to go from Father O and Sister Anita’s face
turned red and she pretty much left me alone for the rest of the year. Miss Marion, A C because I don’t remember much
about her. I do remember being out of school for about three weeks due to an unfortunate
accident. I was allergic to buckwheat (not the Little Rascals character, the
food product). On Saturday morning my dad would cook buckwheat pancakes for
breakfast, and I couldn’t stand the small so I would go outside or up to my
room and close the door. He said it was my imagination, but we discovered it
was a true allergy. One winter night, I was watching TV one evening and my
little brother Chris got a box of buckwheat pancake flour and dumped it over
my head. I couldn’t breathe so my parents sent me outside hoping the cold air
would help. I started wheezing so bad they took me to the hospital. I spent a
few nights there, came home and missed about three weeks of school. I’m not
sure if that’s when we started learning algebra, but I never got it. To this
day the allergy is still there, and I’ve learned not to eat anything that
says Kashi . I even have an epi pen just in case. Sister Rose Miriam – A+, along with
Sister Mary Immaculate my favorite nuns/teachers. She received 18 favorite
teacher votes. Hot Rod Rosie was her nickname given that she drove the station
wagon that carted the other nuns around. She was often seen shooting hoops
and swinging a bat (at a ball not at the students). Sister Irenaeus - D retired on the
job in 1955. I think she used to doze off in class. One day someone was able
to see what she was hiding behind a nondescript textbook. It was a brochure
of Disneyland. A mixed 7th and 8th grade class was probably
a challenge for any teacher. In 7th grade I sat next to an 8th
grader Anna Marie Covati who I had a crush on. She was 13 and looked like she
was 18, I was 12 and looked like I was 8. I’m sure she barely knew I even
existed even though I sat right next to her. One afternoon in class an 8th
grader handed me what looked like a business card and asked me to show it to
Anna. I misunderstood him and thought he said to give it to her. It must have
been a gag form an adult store and all I remember is seeing the word “laid”
on it. She read it, tore it up, and looked at me and mouthed the word “asshole”.
I ceased to exist in her world. Now onto the summer of 1961 and
Cardinal Dougherty.  Miss Marion's hat  Ships  Ship's Stack  Chamois |
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